TheGoogle Pixel 9 Pro Foldmight just be the biggest generational improvement I ’ve envision on any foldable gadget . While Samsung is an honest-to-god hand in the foldaway market place , a good deal of its pinch are fairly incremental , with minor improvement to the hinge , some spec bumps , and a few other bells and whistling .
The jump between the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the first Pixel Fold is much more spectacular . Google completely revamp the design , tot up some cool unexampled Gemini features , and made serious improvement to the eyeglasses . The result is a foldable phone that may very well tucker out out the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 in usableness and more than matches it in full term of specs . Here ’s a first aspect .
Google’s hardware is outstanding
At first glimpse , the Pixel 9 Pro Fold does n’t even look like it ’s made by the same company as thePixel Fold . Where the first Fold is short and squat and come with a 17:4:9 facial expression ratio , the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is both taller and wide , make it more interchangeable in size of it to theSamsung Galaxy zee Fold 6with a 20:9 aspect ratio , but a wide cover screen . The edges are also nicely rounded , rather than the squared - off , almost keen edges of the Fold 6 , which make it slimly uncomfortable to go for .
The result is a great footfall up in usability . I found the 6.3 - inch cover song screen easier to practice with one hand , easier to grip , and just generally more hearty to use . When close , it ’s more of a Plus- or Pro - sized phone without being as awkwardly minute and magniloquent as the Z Fold 6 . Impressively , it only measures about 0.4 inch fatheaded when turn up , make it about the same thickness as the Pixel 9 Pro XL .
However , it ’s deserving noting that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is somewhat heavy , tipping the scales at 9.1 ounces , or 257 gramme . That ’s still slimmed down from the Pixel Fold , which weighed in at almost 10 ounces or 283 gram , but if you ’re used to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 , which is a relatively light 8.43 oz. or 239 grams , the contribute weight may be more obtrusive in your pocket . The frame is made of satin alloy , while the back is a sleek matte that comes in Obsidian or Porcelain people of color pick .
unfold , the dimensions are respectably tablet - sized , at 6.1 inch tall , 5.9 in broad , and 0.2 in thick . in person , I ’m a fan of the added vertical pixels because they serve apps and medium fill the screen better , though those who wish the squatter dimension of the first Fold for pocketability and useableness may not be as pleased .
The cover version screen comes with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 , which should be quite resistant to scratches or shatter , barring laboured abuse . The internal screen is going to be a bit more slight , which is to be expected , so you may need to keep your heart out for scratches . The phone as a whole amount with IPX8 water resistance , mean it can withstand immersion in up to 1 metre or more for a stop of time , though it ’s not resistant to detritus ingress at all , so I advise against take up it to the beach .
address of lastingness , that brings us to the hinge , which is significantly slimmed down and redesigned from the Fold . It ’s now made of stainless steel , and the slight wedge - shape col that used to exist between the hinge is move , allow the phone to position flat in both tabletop and tent fashion . Opening and shutdown are also fluid and satisfying , though it ’s not really potential to do it with one hand .
Two very impressive displays
The cover screen is bright and colourful , with a 60Hz to 120Hz variable refresh pace and the ability to hit 1,800 nits for HDR content and 2,700 nits of peak brightness . The internal screenland is no slouch either , consisting of an 8 - in LTPO OLED screen with a 1Hz to 120Hz variable refresh pace . It can gain 1,600 nit for HDR and 2,700 nit of peak brightness . It ’s quite a morsel bigger than the 7.6 - inch filmdom of the Fold 6 and the 7.8 - inch screenland of theOnePlus Open , making it one of the biggest screens you could get on a foldable in the U.S. market .
Both screens attend tremendous in a bright way disclose to lineal sunlight . The colouration looked plenteous , warm , and pure . The text was crisp , and the viewing slant were great from all English .
Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 , the Pixel 9 Pro Fold seemed less prostrate to washing out or being open to blaze . you could also see the 9 Pro Fold pictured next to the OnePlus Open above . As is the type with the Fold 6 , it ’s both broad and tall , giving you more useable space .
The only downside here is that the internal screen still does n’t confirm the use of a stylus the way the Z Fold 6 does . If you ’re planning on doing serious notetaking , this may still be enough to convert you to stick with Samsung .
Gemini, Pixel Studio, and more
Naturally , the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is loaded with AI features and comes with the Gemini assistant built - in . you could access Gemini by pressing and hold the big businessman button . It ’s set toreplace Google Assistant , allowing you to do thing like bespeak it to create content , plan event , or pull up details about item from Gmail or Google Maps . It plunk for both voice commands and text , letting you plunk what works best for you at the time .
Obviously , the big selling point of a foldaway is multitasking . Split - screen mode is prosperous to get at . Swiping up from the bottom of your screen lets you play up apps that you may drag and drop on different parts of your screen , allow you to do things like have a video running on one side while you take note on Google Docs on the other .
The dual screen are also optimize to take advantage of photos and videos . you’re able to get selfies using the rearward photographic camera by unfolding and redact yourself using the cover screen to preview . For Kyd , Made You Look can help keep your children lease and look at the camera thanks to animations on the book binding silver screen while you frame the shot . you may pick from a variety of dissimilar and fun vivification . Meet calls are also support , with yell read on both the inner and out screenland so that other people can be take in the call .
Pixel Screenshots is a feature article that ’s bring quite a spot of discussion . It exists as a separate app , but fundamentally , every screenshot you take on the machine can get automatically sorted and get up by Pixel Screenshot , making specific information easy to look for . For instance , if you screenshot a recipe or event e-mail , you ’ll be able to pull the details easily via Gemini Nano . It seems handy , and it ’s decent to have all your screenshots filed away in the app , rather than clutter up your pic gallery .
Pixel Studio also stands aside as its own app , giving you a multifariousness of generative AI features out of the box . you may also use it to generate sword new simulacrum base on text or voice , combine unlike images together , and make various tweaks and change to the images you return . Essentially , recollect of it as having DALL - E on your speech sound .
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold runs Android 14 . Like every Pixel equipment , it will receive seven years of OS , security , and Pixel Drop updates .
Capable specs, promising cameras
I was n’t able to spend much clip testing the phone ’s functioning or doing a full - fledge television camera comparing , but I will say that everything was smooth and responsive . You ’re seem at a Tensor G4 processor , 16 GB RAM , and warehousing alternative of 256 GB and 512 GiB .
I did n’t have any problems launch or using apps or multitasking by running two different apps on different parts of the projection screen . However , I was n’t able to run any benchmark tests or do anything more intensive like games , but I feel prosperous saying that you wo n’t have any problems with performance .
I was able to snap several photos on the 48 - megapixel elemental television camera , 10.5MP ultrawide lens , and 10.8MP telephotograph camera with 5x ocular soar . Obviously , the conditions were n’t challenge because the room was very brilliantly perch , but all the photograph attend improbably sharp and clear , with no loss of detail . The camera app also features a diverseness of modes like Macro Focus for brilliant colors and contrast and Pro controls to enable manual tweaking of things like bloodless counterweight and shutter hurrying .
The phone also has Night Sight Video , which uses AI to decoct disturbance and boost picture quality when recording at nighttime or in lowlight . Naturally , I was n’t able to test this feature , but see for our takeaways in our full reappraisal .
And speaking of AI features , there ’s also a young one called Add Me . fundamentally , it lets you take two different exposure and tot up a individual from the former photograph into the new one , which is ready to hand if you ’re commonly the photographer for group shots .
Last but not least , the Weather app also gets a redesign . When the screen is unfolded , it shows quite a piece more information , including hourly forecasts , 10 - day forecast , conditions maps , AI - powered weather condition report and insights , wind focal ratio , and more .
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold means business
And that ’s the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold ! The first Pixel Fold was not a speculative telephone by any agency , but it was also very clearly a first - gen foldable . The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a very unclouded and contiguous upgrade from its herald , but will it be enough to top the chart as thebest fold phoneyou can buy ? We ’re eager to see out , and we ’ll be doing on the nose that in our full review soon .
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold starts at $ 1,799 and is available for preorder as of August 13 . It come in two colors : Obsidian and Porcelain . Regular sales will get down on September 4 .
